One step backwards, one or two steps forward

I have described how I tried to make an ISO 100 - 400 emulsion. It worked from one POV in that everything went well, but from another POV it failed. The emulsion developed an aggregate as I could not stir as well as I had hoped.

So, I am doing frantic work to rescue the bad emulsion. So far, no joy! Of course, at my age, joy is a rare event anyhow. Don't let the Avatar fool you.

In the mean time, I have gotten some critical chemistry for making my first color coating. I plan on doing a single color coating first using an azo dye and the dye bleach process. Previously, as you interested parties may remember, I said that the last surviving color material might be dye bleach. Well, that is what I am going to try as it is easy to do in a home darkroom.

In the first experiment, I plan on imbibing the dye into an existing coating and testing the premise. I will go on from there based on results.

So, I will be basing my work on what Grant Haist and I did back in the 70s making DB coatings and processing them in a home designed DB process. That is my current goal in coating.

I have not forgotten the high speed emulsion, it is just that I have to find a way to rescue the current emulsion (about 1Kg in the fridge) or it must be disposed of and remade. It appears to be a mixing problem. In the mean time, the color coating is simple to do and easy to demonstrate (if it works).

This is a PS to Iford engineers (not Harmon). Why the *$#(#(% don't you guys use shiftable azo dyes to get the speed grain up where it deserves to be. This is what we were working on at Kodak when the projects ended. Then you would have a camera speed film with the grain of Ektachrome and the sharpness of Kodachrome! Gee guys, get to work and astound us!

Anyhow, this is where I am - and Ilfochrome engineers should not be sitting on their hands. There is a whole world of advances out there to think of! Get to work guys. Oh, and simplify the coating paramaters while you are at it so that the cost can come down!